Finance Minister Michael Noonan said today that December's Budget will be about two-thirds as difficult as last year.
However, speaking at the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting in Galway, he warned that the scale of the next three Budgets would depend on growth in the international economy.
Minister Noonan said that August was a very bad month internationally, leaving Ireland vulnerable.
"In terms of budgetary adjustments, the 2012 budget will be about two-thirds as difficult as the 2011 budget," he said.
"But of course, a lot of the reasonably easy options have been taken already, so we're down to rather difficult policy decisions."